Brown: Toll proposal rejection a clear sign

This state legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell must have some really thick craniums. That’s… This state legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell must have some really thick craniums. That’s the only reasoning I can surmise for what can only be described as some of the worst ideas for fixing Pennsylvania’s $450 million transportation budget gap that, fortunately, didn’t make it.

On Tuesday, the federal government rejected the state’s third request since 2007 to turn Interstate 80 into a toll road, leaving the state with half as much money as it initially projected for highway repairs and public transportation subsidizing.

This comes after Gov. Rendell signed Act 44 into law in 2007 to generate $900 million on the assumption the Interstate 80 proposal would receive federal approval.

But the governor now looks like a dunce in the middle of a widening budget gap without the means to compensate for it.

Turning I-80 into part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is far more difficult than the governor assumed — and for good reason.

Established under Act 211 in 1934, the Pennsylvania Turnpike emerged under the pretense that no state funds would come from taxpayers to maintain the road.

As the best rapid transportation from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, the turnpike commanded a premium to use its wide lanes and smoothly paved roads.

In 1956, as Pennsylvania’s commission was planning on creating I-80 as a toll road, President Dwight Eisenhower sought to create a national highway by using the state’s I-80 plans.

Ike wanted to connect the U.S.’s rapidly expanding infrastructure, and he succeeded.

But as I-80 was chartered as an interstate highway, both state and federal tax dollars have filtered into it — potentially conflicting with Act 211 in the event the highway incorporates into the turnpike system — as well as with the federal statute.

Rendell didn’t seem to get that memo.

State Rep. Joe Markosek, D-25th, said this plan stood as the legislature’s plan B for solving the state’s funding. His peer, Rep. David Levdansky, D-39th, said the state needs to look for its plan C now.

“‘C’ standing for cuts,” he said, the Post-Gazette reported.

The thought that a politician could both figure out letter association and the need for budget cuts in the same sentence leaves me awestruck.

Now let’s see him act on it.

Projections had called for $25 million to be divided between Allegheny County’s Port Authority and Philadelphia’s SEPTA to cover the $50 million hole in their budgets partially.

Port Authority recently altered 60 routes to compensate for an already underfunded system, and its infrastructure has remained largely unchanged since its 1964 inception.

In the past 50 years though, the county population has decreased by more than 400,000 people, and cars have become more predominant.

Even with the recent cuts, more are needed for Port Authority to be profitable without the state funds. Much the same on a larger scale, state legislators need to start using that c-word too.

Further, if dumb luck were ever to side with the state government in making I-80 a toll road, it could potentially create more difficulties for commuters and workers in the transportation industry.

Many of the goods we use are affordable because highways like I-80 are cheap to use.

By comparison, it costs almost $200 on Interstate 76 in tolls for a commercial trucker to drive from one side of the state to the other. Pending that trucker works 250 days per year and drives that route twice per day, it could add up to almost $100,000 per year.

If rates were to be similar on I-80, consumers would end up footing the bill for the massive spike in overhead, and the burden would just be moved from the state government to its citizens. Pennsylvania’s leaders should know that.

Toll roads are luxuries, and they should be treated as such.

They’re designed to make traveling great distances easier. But there are other ways to get from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia without paying the turnpike’s $22 car fee.

However, unlike I-76, I-80 is the only corridor to the northern half of the state. If Rendell were to become the troll under the bridge and charge, travelers would have no choice but to pay.

Pennsylvania is already the 10th most taxed state in the nation, Forbes magazine reported.

At some point, the buck has to stop, and someone has to take accountability for the excessive spending.

This rejection should become a reality check for Rendell and the state legislature. The budget cannot keep going up at this rate, and taxpayers who already pay to maintain roads in this state shouldn’t have to pay more for the same services.

Levdansky used the word “cuts” like it had no place in a politician’s vocabulary. If using that word is too difficult for him to utter, perhaps it’s time he adopt the word “responsibility” instead.

E-mail Jacob your thoughts at jebrown13@yahoo.com.